Our new mortgage visualization tool

Today, we’re launching a set of web-based tools to provide consumers with easier access to public mortgage data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. The new tools will help maximize the impact of this tremendous public dataset by providing a user-friendly tool to enable consumers to explore mortgage application and loan data at a local level.

What’s HMDA?

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act or HMDA requires many financial institutions to maintain, report, and publicly disclose information about mortgages. HMDA was originally enacted by Congress in 1975 and the Dodd-Frank Act transferred HMDA rulemaking authority from the Federal Reserve Board to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2011. In 2012, HMDA data included approximately 18.7 million records from 7,400 financial institutions.

So why is this data important?

It can help show whether lenders are serving the housing needs of their communities. It gives public officials information that helps them make decisions and policies, and can shed light on lending patterns that could be discriminatory.

What exactly can I do with the new tool?

You’ll be able to explore the data using interactive maps and charts. Using the tool, you can see nationwide summaries or choose interactive features that allow you to isolate the data for any metropolitan area. You can easily explore millions of data points with these graphs and charts. The image below is an example of a map generated by the tool. The map shows that loan volumes were up in 2012 in most counties throughout the U.S. We’re committed to enhancing the functionality of the tool and will continue to release enhanced features over time.

We’re excited to see what you do, and encourage you – whether you’re a consumer, researcher, developer, or company – to explore the data using these new tools. Leave us a comment with your ideas or use #cfpbdata on Twitter.

Due to technical issues, the commenting feature of our blog is temporarily unavailable. We’re working to bring this functionality back, and look forward to hearing your feedback and comments about the CFPB’s work soon.